Iran took the one women’s kabaddi gold India have missed, and the two meet again at 8.30am on Wednesday
India’s women have won three of the four Asian Games kabaddi titles. Iran have the other one, from Jakarta in 2018, and the sides have not played at a Games since.
Sep 22, 2026
There have been four women’s kabaddi tournaments at the Asian Games. India have won three of them. The one they did not win was Jakarta in 2018, when Iran beat them 27-24 in the final, and on Wednesday morning the two meet again in Group A at the Tokai Citizens Gymnasium.
First raid is at 8.30am IST. For an Indian audience it is an early alarm for a pool match, which is exactly the point: this is the game that tells you whether the title defence is real.
What Monday showed, and what it did not
India opened against Bangladesh and won 42-21. They were 21-10 up at half time and forced two All-Outs across the match. Sanju Devi did the bulk of the raiding, Manisha Kumari was busy at left cover, and Sonali Shingate and Pushpa Rana added points around them.
It was comfortable and it proves very little. Bangladesh have never been the team standing between India and a kabaddi gold. Iran have.
Jakarta 2018 still sits there
That final is the reference point for everything this team does. Iran won 27-24, India’s first defeat in women’s kabaddi at the Asian Games, and it came in the same Games where the men also failed to win gold. India went home from Jakarta with no kabaddi title at all for the first time since the sport was introduced.
Hangzhou answered part of it. India took the gold back with a 26-25 win over Chinese Taipei in a final decided in the last raids, and the raider holding her nerve at the end of it was Pushpa Rana, who now leads the side. But they did not beat Iran to do it. The two were in different groups, and Iran went out in the semi-finals to Chinese Taipei, 35-24. India and Iran have not played each other at an Asian Games since that Jakarta final eight years ago.
What Iran do that causes India problems
Mamtha Poojari, who coaches the side alongside Neeta Dadwe, was asked before the tournament which teams worried her. She named two.
“Iran and Chinese Taipei are the teams we’re watching most closely,” she said, pointing to Iran’s high-tempo approach across the full 40 minutes.
That is the honest description of the problem. Iran do not sit in and absorb, which is what most sides do against India and which India are very good at punishing. They come at you for both halves, they make the mat feel small, and they are comfortable in a low-scoring, defence-led match, which is the kind of match India’s raiders least enjoy.
India’s counter is Sanju Devi, who was named the most valuable player at the Women’s Kabaddi World Cup in 2025 and who has started this tournament the way a raider in form starts one. If she gets going early, Iran’s shape has to change, and India’s advantage in the corners starts to tell.
What is actually at stake on Wednesday
Less than it feels, on paper. Group A has India, Iran, Japan and Bangladesh, and the top two go through to Friday’s semi-finals, with the final on Saturday. India could lose this and still qualify. They finish the group against Japan on Thursday at 4.15pm IST.
But a group of four that sends two through is really a seeding exercise, and the loser here is likely to draw the stronger side from Group B in the semi-final. Beyond that there is the thing nobody in the camp will say out loud. This team has been carrying Jakarta for eight years. You do not get many chances to put a result like that back where it belongs, and one of them is on Wednesday morning.
The men, meanwhile, have won both their games, 49-24 against Japan and 63-31 against South Korea, and India are chasing both kabaddi golds again. The women’s half of that is the half with a proper obstacle in it.